He added that the “communal style of game play reinvigorated the arcade industry in the 1990s”.

Image copyrightThe Strong museum

Image caption
Microsoft Windows Solitaire was nominated but failed to make the final selection

When Microsoft launched the Xbox in 2001, more than half of the consoles sold came with Halo: Combat Evolved.

The first-person multi-player game sold more than six million copies and has been followed up with sequels and spin-offs including novels and comics.

Ms Symonds said the game was key in showing that consoles could be “just as effective, if not better, than a PC” for high-precision games, as well as “one of the strongest multiplayer experiences of its time”.

With the addition of this year’s four winners, the World Video Games Hall of Fame now has 16 permanent exhibits.

Its first entrants were Doom, Pong, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros, Tetris and World of Warcraft.

In 2016, another six games – Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, The Oregon Trail, Grand Theft Auto III and The Sims – were honoured.